FORT WORTH, Texas — The Houston Cougars defeated the TCU Horned Frogs, 30-19, in a Big 12 contest at Amon G. Carter Stadium on Friday night.
Houston (2-4, 1-2) won its first conference game of the season and sent TCU (3-3, 1-2) to its third loss in its last four games.
The Cougars entered the game with an insane streak without points, per our own Derek Duke. Houston changed that on their second drive of the game.
Yep, Houston was shut out by Cincinnati and Iowa State in back-to-back weeks. But a change at quarterback — and some ill-timed mistakes by TCU quarterback Josh Hoover — allowed the Cougars to claim a 24-6 halftime lead.
Of course, the Horned Frogs came back. TCU scored three touchdowns in the second half and cut the lead to 27-19. But the Cougars put together a tremendous drive as they ran the football and chewed up more than six minutes of clock and led to a field goal that put the game away.
Here are three thoughts on the game.
Houston’s QB Change
So when you’ve been shut out two weeks in a row you have to do something. For Fritz, that was starting Zeon Chriss at quarterback.
That did the trick.
By halftime, Houston was up, 24-6. Chriss had 121 yards on 11-of-14 passing and a touchdowns, along with 91 yards rushing, 71 of which came on an incredible touchdown run that was the perfect answer for the Cougars after TCU scored its first touchdown.
So what happened? A few things. After a couple of weeks of futility, sometimes you just need a new voice in the huddle. Chriss provided that. ESPN’s announcing crew mentioned that Chriss had trust with the players because he worked out with the first string in the spring as Donovan Smith was recovery from surgery for a torn labrum.
This was his first start at Houston, but he played at Louisiana for two seasons. Last year he completed 66% of his passes and threw for 1,222 yards before he missed the rest of the season due to a broken fibula.
Fritz coached against him last year when he was at Tulane. He and the offensive staff, led by offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay, crafted a game plan that gave Chriss confidence. Short, crisp, high-percentage passes helped set up deeper routes and the run game.
Finally, this was his first start of the season. That means TCU had no film on him, unless it wanted to dig through what he did at Louisiana last year. He had an element of surprise.
In the second half TCU found a way to limit him and the entire offense, so the element of surprise wore off. The Horned Frogs made good adjustment. They even chased Chriss away briefly on a sack when half the TCU defense landed on him.
Donovan Smith, the former starter, led the final drive of the game that sealed the victory as trainers worked on Chriss’ right forearm.
But, Chriss did enough to help Houston win its first Big 12 game this season. And, perhaps most importantly, he and the offense didn’t make key mistakes, unlike …
The Turnover Problem
TCU had a minus-6 turnover margin going into this game. The Horned Frogs were tied at No. 121 in the country with … Houston.
Well, guess who won? The team that committed the fewest turnovers. In fact, Houston managed to avoid any turnovers and TCU committed four, pushing their season turnover margin to minus-9. In fact, as our Heartland College Sports X (formerly Twitter) account pointed out …
Since that loss to UCF, the Horned Frogs have proven unable to protect the football.
Quarterback Josh Hoover threw two interceptions in the first half, both to Houston safety A.J. Haulcy. One was a great play by Haulcy as he settled underneath a TCU receiver and Hoover didn’t see him. Later, Hoover rolled to his left and set up to throw a deep pass to Jack Bech. He lost his footing, but Hoover also underthrew him.
In the second half Hoover connected with JP Richardson and he fumbled the ball, which set up Houston’s first points of the second half, a field goal. Hoover was called for a fumble while trying to throw a ball in desperation on the final drive.
It didn’t matter that TCU’s defense got its act together in the second half, or that TCU’s offense finally got on the board for three touchdowns. This lack of protection of the football is unsustainable.
The Fritz Plan
Most outsiders knew this was going to be a tough season for Houston under their first-year coach, Willie Fritz. Winning their first conference game under his watch is undeniably the next step.
The Cougars still need four wins for a bowl game. That seems unlikely with the schedule. But, Fritz is building and you can start to see the pieces of the future settle in.
His history suggests that this program will take a leap in the next two years. At Central Missouri he went from 5-6 in 1997 to 8-3 in 1998. At Sam Houston he went from 6-5 in 2010 to 14-1 in 2011. He took over a great Georgia Southern team and maintained the standard.
At Tulane, it took three years. He went 4-8 in 2016, 5-7 in 2017 and then 7-6 in 2018. By 2022, he had the Green Wave in the Cotton Bowl beating USC.
Trust him. To paraphrase the Big 12’s good friend, DJ Khaled, “All he does is win, win, win, no matter what.” Eventually.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
